Lin Qinghen hadn’t shut down his production of Homeostasis Powder in the background. Mainly, he had set the system to produce over a thousand bottles before he wrecked those two acres at the Lin estate. 

Back then, he’d figured it’d be a waste to have any downtime on the production line if he had to move to a new planting area, so he set the system to operate in a fully saturated mode. In hindsight, it turned out to be a solid choice.

After the proficiency level maxed out, another day or so passed, and his production speed improved to about 14 minutes per bottle, with roughly eleven hundred bottles yet to be taken out of the system. 

Lin Qinghen had done the math; when the proficiency attribute first kicked in, it counted the initial thousand bottles all at once. After that, the time reduction was calculated bottle by bottle.

The time reduction rate was 0.05%, meaning as time shortened, the base time would decrease, and the overall time reduction would lessen. In other words, the further he progressed, the harder it became. 

Getting it down to a few seconds per bottle would take ages—an impossible feat for now, especially with the current situation at hand. Lin Qinghen was on his own and needed to figure out if he could keep up with it all.

Yin Hengxie was still discussing strategies with Yin Miao, temporarily forgetting about them. Lin Qinghen had heard everything he needed, calculated his next steps, and left with Yin Jiuxiao without the other two noticing.

Following Yin Jiuxiao’s directions, he found the place where he’d be staying. After a tiring journey, he settled in. He’d likely be here for a long time, so getting familiar with his surroundings seemed wise. The courtyard was large but felt empty and cold, with much of it showing signs of age.

With Yin Hengxie being so busy, he rarely had time to care for the place, and Yin Jiuxiao, blind since childhood, had endured bullying from malicious servants. 

The household was complicated, with many people eyeing the position of young master, hoping for his downfall. Yin Jiuxiao had narrowly escaped death several times, but those were just distant memories for him now.

Currently, there was only one cleaning servant left in the courtyard, along with two guards who, while loyal to the family head, held a rather indifferent attitude toward Yin Jiuxiao. 

His personal attendant was an old woman who had watched him grow up and still had a sliver of affection left. She used to lead him around, but her health had deteriorated over the past few years, and she should be resting by now. 

Fortunately, with Lin Qinghen here, he could take care of Yin Jiuxiao himself without needing anyone else.

In fact, the inattentiveness of the other people in the courtyard had its perks; Lin Qinghen could do whatever he wanted without worrying about being discovered. As for Yin Jiuxiao, well, he couldn’t see anyway.

It was quite a suitable place, indeed.

Yin Jiuxiao allowed himself to be gently guided to sit down, but his gaze never left Lin Qinghen. He had a feeling that this person was deep in thought.

What they lacked now were alchemists.

He’d suspected before that Lin Qinghen didn’t have a Spirit Essence, but it was highly likely he could refine medicine. However, with the state the Yin family was in, one alchemist wouldn’t solve their problems. 

Yet Lin Qinghen seemed untroubled, as though he already had a plan in mind. Yin Jiuxiao figured that with him here, Lin Qinghen probably wouldn’t have an excuse to go out and handle things.

So, he quickly made a decision, leaning weakly against the bedside, and said in a soft voice, “Qinghen, I just got back, and I feel so tired. I want to sleep for a while. Would you lie down with me?”

Lin Qinghen found him so considerate! He’d just been thinking of finding an excuse to leave, and Yin Jiuxiao’s words saved him the trouble.

“You go ahead and sleep.” He helped Yin Jiuxiao lie down and carefully tucked him in. “I’m not tired. I’ll just tidy up a bit.”

Yin Jiuxiao really did look tired; he lay down and, after a moment, his breathing grew even. Once he confirmed that Yin Jiuxiao was asleep, Lin Qinghen took out the Bee Crystal Butterfly hidden in his clothes and used it to contact Yu Yinyin.

Of course, Yin Jiuxiao wasn’t actually asleep. He listened as Lin Qinghen started talking.

“Master, could you come and pick me up? I’m at the Yin estate now,” Lin Qinghen kept it brief. “I’ve learned some things about the shop. We can talk in person.”

The Yin estate’s defenses were vastly different from the Lin family’s. Yu Yinyin could come and go here with ease. Given her level of spiritual power, it was a breeze for her to take Lin Qinghen away.

After they left, Yin Jiuxiao immediately sat up in bed. Over the past few days, he’d made progress with integrating his internal power, which meant that summoning his shadow now made even less noise. 

Even a high-level expert would struggle to detect it, and with Yu Yinyin not being from the combat system, her alertness wasn’t particularly high.

So he called on his shadow to follow from a distance. Unnoticed, he watched them head north until they entered a pharmacy in the market.

Die Meng Medicine Hall.

Yin Jiuxiao stopped there for a moment, staring at the name as if recalling something, then continued to follow them inside.

The pharmacy itself was modest. The first floor served as the storefront, while the second floor was a reception room. The pharmacy’s plantation was situated at the outskirts of the city. Yu Yinyin led Lin Qinghen inside, where he was brought to a hidden room behind the reception area and faintly heard voices from outside.

“Don’t reveal yourself yet,” Yu Yinyin gestured for him to sit. “Back on the boat, there was nothing you could help with, so I didn’t call on you. Now, with the current situation, I need to explain things to you.”

Lin Qinghen had already grasped most of the details. Over the past twenty years, his master’s business had indeed been struggling, and as Yu Yinyin spoke, she pointed out various people, making it clearer.

The head of Die Meng was an old servant from her past, whose spiritual power was mediocre but who remained loyal. Even after all these years, he responded immediately to her summons. 

Besides him, the pharmacy had several guards, all around Mysterious Level strength, who had stuck around out of loyalty, guarding the pharmacy as best they could.

The old manager also looked after a nine-year-old girl he’d taken in, whom he treated like a granddaughter. 

When her Spirit Awakening was performed, it turned out she had the same Beast-Spirit Essence, the Bee Crystal Butterfly, as Yu Yinyin—a rare gift. 

They’d planned to pass the shop down to her if Yu Yinyin didn’t return. The girl’s talent was promising; she’d kept the plantation running over the years, allowing the pharmacy to continue.

However, the biggest issue facing Die Meng was the lack of loyal alchemists. A few years back, they’d been able to employ around ten alchemists on a contractual basis, keeping the pharmacy from devolving into a mere supplier of raw ingredients. But things had since deteriorated.

Lin Qinghen had already heard the cause back at the Yin estate.

Elder Xu of the Yin family had joined forces with the city’s Alchemist Association to make a sudden move. Though the Fu Xin Hall’s branch didn’t operate in the Bei Zhou, the Alchemist Association’s tendency to band together was pervasive. 

Each city had its own association, and these associations only moved where there was profit. 

The upper ranks of the association chose to work with Xu Yaoyang in a bid for control, and the lower-ranked alchemists followed suit, seeing it as a chance to raise prices.

Most of the city’s pharmacies lacked conscience anyway, and merchants were naturally profit-driven. Yin Hengxie’s contracted alchemists had all switched sides, and his inventory—deliberately sabotaged by Xu Yaoyang—had been depleted, leaving him with a shortage of medicines to combat the plague of Biting Tooth Rats.

Die Meng was among the few who sided with Yin Hengxie. According to Yu Yinyin, it was because he’d lent a helping hand in the past, and it wasn’t right to raise prices in a crisis. Yet, after a few days of selling at the original prices, their contracted alchemists started bailing one by one.

Alchemists were irreplaceable, and their temperaments made them difficult to manage. Without their support, the pharmacy’s only option was anger and helplessness; no one would come to arbitrate fairly.

When Lin Qinghen arrived, the Die Meng’s manager was already negotiating with the last two remaining alchemists, who were just holding out for higher commissions.

As he listened to their argument, Lin Qinghen heard the old manager’s shaky voice as he was escorted aside, trembling with anger.

“Don’t push your luck!” he glared, his eyes wide. “An eighty-percent commission? Who would accept such terms? When you were down and out, our pharmacy was there for you! Is this how you repay us?”

But the two alchemists were entirely unfazed.

“Die Meng is just a small pharmacy. Without us, what medicine could it sell?” one sneered, cocking his head. “I advise you to accept. At least you’ll still make some money. Otherwise, soon, you’ll have nothing left.”

This all happened within the past few days, and even though Yu Yinyin had returned, the situation couldn’t be salvaged immediately. She explained it all to Lin Qinghen, sighing as she finished.

“The alchemists are the lifeblood of a pharmacy. No matter how skilled I am, I can’t replace that.” She shook her head. “If we don’t keep alchemists, we might as well shut down and become a materials supplier, but that’ll just make us even more vulnerable.”

Yu Yinyin had never expected her business to decline so sharply. Back in its prime, alchemists had fought to work with her. Now, these two mere Yellow Level Five-Star alchemists dared to put on airs in front of Die Meng.

She was a Heavenly Level Six-Star, but not from the combat system. While her Bee Crystal Butterfly had some attack power, it would only be on par with a Heavenly Level One-Star combat user. Bei Zhou was a complicated place, rife with internal strife among the Yin family, and the Alchemist Association wasn’t to be taken lightly. Revealing her strength would do more harm than good, so she had to tread carefully.

She sighed again, unable to fully explain the situation to Lin Qinghen.

“My view is simple: these two alchemists are out of line. Old Xie only had any hope because of those talks,” Yu Yinyin said. “If it were up to me, I’d close the place down and start fresh in a quieter city. We’ve got good materials and a little money, but Lei City is just a cesspool—a small pond with too many big fish. Qinghen, are you sure you want to stay?”

Old Xie was the current manager of Die Meng.

“This is just a minor issue, Master. I only just got here; why would you want to leave?” Lin Qinghen glanced at her calmly, unfazed. With the situation clear in his mind, he confirmed one last thing. “When you first scouted Bei Zhou, I gave you Round Wheat seeds, thinking it’d be useful if you planted them early. Did you plant them?”

Yu Yinyin nodded, “Of course.”

Her skills were top-notch in all fields except combat. To prevent anyone from stealing the seeds, she’d set up a new formation in the plantation; with her current strength, no one in Lei City could break it.

For someone like her, cultivating basic spirit plants was simple. Die Meng’s plantation was small, barely twenty acres. She hadn’t even needed to hire laborers. She’d also reclaimed all the Bee Crystal Butterflies left at the Lin estate and even bred a few more.

However, materials alone wouldn’t cut it without an alchemist.

Lin Qinghen smiled when he heard this, a sense of confidence filling him.

“That makes things much easier.”

Just then, the quarrel outside reached its peak. The two alchemists, emboldened, were about to push things further when they felt something smash into them.

Two teacups flew at them in succession, landing squarely on their foreheads. The hot water stung, and shards scraped their skin. Alchemists typically weren’t in peak physical shape, and their reflexes were too slow to dodge.

“Who’s there?!”

“Me.” Lin Qinghen stepped out from the hidden room behind the reception area, his voice calm and deliberate. “Now, you can get lost.”